The Football Forecast

Arsenal – Who Do They Need To Sign?

Over the last few seasons Arsenal’s transfer windows have seen us loss our top players instead bring in top players to link up with our stars like Robin Van Persie, Cesc Fabergas, Samir Nasriand Thierry Henry. Since the sales of these players was to help pay off the debts of the Emirates Stadium Arsenal now have a largeamount of money that has become available to be spent in the transfer window and has been shown with the likes of Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil.

In 2015 Lord Harris reported that Arsenal had around 200 million to spend and Arsne Wenger has reportedly said that he is willing to spend if needed to improve the side, for an Arsenal fan this is a dream to hear that Arsenal is now finally able to compete with the likes of Manchester City and Chelsea to fight to get the top players instead of settling for second pickings, with this amount of money Arsenal don’t need to make a mass amount of singings and change the whole team as the basis of the squad is strong enough but in certain positions if there was an investment in 2 world class players into the team this can push the team on from a team with a slight chance of the title to a real chance at challenging each season.

Gonzalo Higuain

Since the departure of Robin Van Persie to Premier League rivals Manchester United, Arsenal have been in need of a world class forward to lead the line. Arsenal may already have the likes Danny Welbeck and Theo Walcott who can play as the lone man for Arsenal but are not what you would call “world class”, Oliver Giroud has come closest to showing the form to be a leading striker for Arsenal this season scoring 20 goals in 42 games but only 11 of these coming in the Premier League.

One player I feel that would be the ideal fit for the current Arsenal team with pace, power and cool finishing and playing at the highest level for club and country is Gonzalo Higuain, This season Higuain has been in the form of his career and is proving why he is one of the best forwards in the world scoring 26 goals in 28 games in the Seria A this season and is spearheading Napoli’s title challenge this season. Higuain would be the type of forward Arsenal are crying out for as he is quite similar to the way Robin Van Persie was when he was at Arsenal as the leading man to lead the goals and hit that 20+ goals a season mark. Higuain is 28 so still has 3-4 years left at the top of his game and is in his prime of his career. This would be an expensive signing due to the fact according to transfermarkt.co.uk he is currently worth around 41.25 million and Napoli are not going to let there star man go on the cheap, I feel that if Arsenal do want to challenge for the title then the signing of Higuain is a sign not only to the fans to prove that we do mean business but it will also show the power that the club now has and is not known as the selling club to others but have the power to attract players of Higuain’s ability. From the stats you can see that Higuain has scored 8 more goals than what Giroud has in 5 less games and averages 2.2 more shots per game which already shows that signing Higuain is going to provide more of a threat going forward than what Giroud does already, having both these at the club would be a good partnership as they both have the talent and would increase the attacking threat.

Grzegorz Krychowiak

The next position I feel that Arsenal need to strengthen is the central midfield role due to upcoming retirement of Mikel Arteta and Mathieu Flamini now reaching the end of his career and not offering the same ability he used to be able to this position is becoming short of players with world class talent, Arsenal currently only have Arron Ramsey, Jack Wilshere, Francis Coquelin, Mohammed Elneny, Santi Cazola, Mathieu Flamini and Mikel Arteta who are natural in this position and currently 4 of these players are out injured leaving us short of quality in this area. I feel that Grzegorz Krychowiak is a perfect fit into the Arsenal team as he is the type of player we have been needing since the days of Patrick Vieira holding up the heart of the midfield and taking control of the middle of the park.

These stats show that Krychowiak is the type of player we can bring in to provide a deep lying role in the heart of our midfield providing stability and allowing our creative players like Cazola, Sanchez, Ozil, Walcott, etc. to have the time and ability to go forward and know that we have a player we can rely on in the middle to break up the play and be able to create a counter attack for us, the closest player we have to this is the rise of Francis Coquelin over the last season but although he has been a key player for us and was deeply missed when he was out injured over the christmas period he does not have that international experience has 29 caps for Poland and is aged 26 and is going into the prime of his career. the key stats to look at for the holding midfielder is averaging around 5 interceptions a game which is a key aspect to a team like Arsenal who like possession based football and hitting teams quickly and with 5 interceptions that can more than likely lead to a goal within a game and Coquelin is only able to make 2.8 interceptions a game which is creating less chances a game on interceptions. The next key stat to look at is Tackles per game which Krychowiak is averaging around 2.8 a game and Coquelin is 3 so in this area we are not going to be on averaging getting a player that can already do a better job but is only 0.2% which is not a huge different like the difference in interceptions.

Overall I feel that if Arsenal was to splash the cash and bring in these two players this could take the team from just being in contention with a chance at the title to genuine title challengers as we would have a world class strike force with a player who can score 20+ goals a season with the class of Ozil and co. providing the services and players like Krychowiak and Coquelin holding up the middle of the park and with Cech into what would be his second season after already starting off and improving the back 4 would be ready to take the lead and see Arsenal push for the first Premier League Title to come to the Emirates Stadium.